Valentine storm worm virus.
 

I went looking for valentine e-cards to send and ran across this announcement dated feb13th.



http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/2780547.cms




WASHINGTON: If you unexpectedly receive a Valentine's Day e-card, be careful, it may not be from a secret admirer, but instead may contain the 'Storm Worm' virus which could "infect" your computer system.

This warning was issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which said that "with the holiday approaching, be on the lookout for spam e-mails spreading the Storm Worm malicious software (malware)."

"The e-mail directs the recipient to click on a link to retrieve the electronic greeting card (e-card). Once the user clicks on the link, malware is downloaded to the Internet-connected device and causes it to become infected and part of the Storm Worm botnet," the agency said in a press release.

A botnet is a network of compromised machines under the control of a single user. Botnets are typically set up to facilitate criminal activity such as spam e-mail, identity theft, denial of service attacks, and spreading malware to other machines on the Internet.

"The Storm Worm virus has capitalised on various holidays in the last year by sending millions of e-mails advertising an e-card link within the text of the spam e-mail. Valentine's Day has been identified as the next target.

Be wary of any e-mail received from an unknown sender. Do not open any unsolicited e-mail and do not click on any links provided," the FBI warned.

Hey! Thanks!

welcome!
well, I am sure lots of people will be getting e-cards today but
I am not sure why I thought it was an important public notice.

Here's an exchange that I had in the office here on Tuesday. Technically speaking, it's real. But it's not new. We all already know how to treat links in email messages, right? M'kay. Good.


***************************************

T:

It is true that this kind of cover for bad behavior exists. It’s not particularly new. The whole idea of “Here’s an interesting piece of email, oh, and by the way, click this link.” is one you’ve seen a hundred times. Like the bank phishing scams and countless others, the way to handle this is to either ignore it altogether (but you won’t get that real card from your real friend) or, as the paragraph below from Snopes.com suggests, go straight to the source.


Bottom line, a threat exists. There is actually a malware attack called “Postcard”. But all the same common sense rules apply, and I don’t have any reason (yet) to think we’re in for a terrible attack.

Yours,

BigV

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: T
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 8:14 AM
To: BigV
Subject: FW: [BULK] (no subject)
Importance: Low


V, I don’t know if this is valid or not, do you?

T

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: C
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 8:12 AM
To: T
Subject: FW: [BULK] (no subject)
Importance: Low

Just in case ~

PLEASE FORWARD!!!!

Hi All,

I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!

I checked snopes.com , and it is for real!! http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp



Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!

You should be alert during the next few days. Do not open any message with an attachment entitled 'Invitation' OR ONE CALLED 'POSTCARD,'
regardless of who sent it to you. It is a virus which opens an Olympic Torch OR A POSTCARD IMAGE, which 'burns' the whole hard disc C of your computer. This virus will be received from someone
who has your e-mail address in his/her contact list.
This is the reason why you need to send this e-mail to all your contacts. It is better to receive this message 25 times than to receive the virus and open it.

If you receive a mail called 'Invitation' even though sent to you by a friend, do not open it. Shut down your computer immediately.

This is the worst virus announced by CNN. It has been classified by Microsoft as the most destructive virus ever. This virus was discovered by McAfee yesterday, and there is no repair yet for
this kind of virus. This virus simply destroys the Zero Sector of the Hard Disc, whe re the vital information is kept.

COPY THIS E-MAIL, AND SEND IT TO YOUR FRIENDS. REMEMBER: IF YOU SEND IT TO THEM, YOU WILL BENEFIT ALL OF US.

This is my line of work...

On February 12, 2008, the Cyber Alert Level is being raised from Green (Low) to Blue (Guarded) due to significant vulnerabilities reported by Microsoft and a vulnerability discovered in Novel Netware Client. On February 12, 2008, Microsoft issued eleven new security bulletins covering vulnerabilities in various products. Organizations are encouraged to review the details outlined in these bulletins and the related Cyber Security Advisories, apply the patches as soon as possible after appropriate testing, and to inform and educate users to not click on links or attachments contained in emails from untrusted sources.

woah, Thanks. Good information!